


Last Request

by Abidos



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Emperor Hux, Kylo Ren Redemption, M/M, Past Character Death, Phasma Lives, Post-TLJ, of sorts, the First Order has won
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 20:32:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13442835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abidos/pseuds/Abidos
Summary: The resistance has lost, the Order is triumphant and Armitage Hux sits on the throne of the Galaxy. Leia Organa is dying and there is only one thing she wants.





	Last Request

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Emperor Hux](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/352869) by Fancy Maul. 



They had treated her better than she had expected. The stormtroopers that had picked her up hadn’t laid a finger on her. Her cell wasn’t uncomfortable, and the food had come at regular intervals and was of no worse quality than she was used to.  She had even been allowed to keep her painkillers.  She still had one package left, it should be enough.

She leaned back against the wall and thought about a different time she had been in such a cell, many years ago.  How scared she had been, how brave.  Her entire world gone, tortured and facing death and then, hope.  It would not happen again, for her there was no hope left.  How disappointed her younger self would be to see her now. Giving up and throwing herself at the mercy of her enemy.

She chuckled mirthlessly. Of all the enemies she had faced, to be bested by the likes of Armitage Hux.  No Force powers, no riches, no royal title to his name, not even a planet to call his home. Just himself and a bunch of street children.  How she had underestimated him.  They all had.

After several hours the ship landed. A different set of stormtroopers, these ones wearing the tyrannical armour, came to escort her.  She was allowed to walk in the middle of their formation, without chains, and they adapted their speed to hers.  For a second her old temperament took hold and she was tempted to walk as slow as possible to see how they would react.  She didn’t.  She needed the Tyrant’s good will, and wasn’t willing to waste it on a childish trick. 

The palace was vast. She walked down a corridor of white marble, the ceilings so high, the glassless windows so large it was almost as if they were outside among the native forest of the planet.  She wondered if this was what luxury looked like for someone who had spent his entire life in the death of space.

She saw some courtiers and diplomats at the side.  Their colourful and rich attire stood out like a sore thumb in the stark interior that counted with no more decoration than the red carpet she was walking over and the banners of the Order.  She realized that was probably on purpose.  Yes, they had all underestimated Armitage Hux.

She noticed Yinak, the Rodian envoy. The last time she had seen him he had been telling her Rodia was going to make a deal with the Order. He had pleaded with her to give up the fight, he could arrange a pardon for her and what remained of the Resistance if they denounced their cause.  The Order wasn’t like the old Empire.  Hux had no intention of governing through fear.  He was political, he made deals… the Order had started building schools on Jakku and other poor planets, slavery had been outlawed throughout the galaxy, slavers were mercilessly pursued.  Rodia wasn’t the only one who thought like that, at least Yinak had informed her of their decision before they had to hear from it on the holonet.  She wondered if this was how her mother had felt, when the senate had named Palpatine emperor.

The Resistance had been desperate then, had bet it all on one last hope, one last chance, and Rey. They had spent months planning the assassination attempt.  The man would be vulnerable, without force powers, just normal troopers to protect him.  A small group of people, leaded by Rey, with Finn helping them infiltrate, should be able to get close enough to cut off the head of the snake.  They had gotten close enough.  Hux, then grand marshal, had not been vulnerable.  They had taken it for granted that when Hux had murdered Ben… Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, he would have also taken care of the knights of Ren, Luke’s lost pupils who had followed her son to the Order.  They had been wrong.  Only Rey had managed to escape with her life.  They had lost Finn, Poe, BB-8 and Rey had lost her arm.  One week later the doctor had given her her final verdict.

The huge doors to the inner sanctum slid open noiselessly. She held her breath, would he really be there?  Was this just a cruel trick?  Stars knew Hux owed her nothing.

The room was almost empty, only four praetorian guards and legatus Phasma, and on his throne, the tyrant of the known galaxy, Praetor Armitage Hux.  It wasn’t him she was here to see. She stepped closer to the throne, past the troopers, until she was at the feet of the dais.  He really was there, smiling sadly at her, Ben.

She didn’t know for how long she stood there just looking at he boy.  He looked away first, with a small depreciating smile that reminded her so much of Han it was physically painful. Ben turned to Hux and moved his hand to straighten out an errand strand of hair. His fingers went straight through the man.

When Rey first had told her, she hadn’t believed it.  It couldn’t be. Kylo would have never felt the peace to become a ghost in the Force, and even if he had, why would he remain with the man who had orchestrated his murder, might have even done the deed himself.  But Rey had sworn again and again that it was him she had seen. And when Leia realized she had only a few days left to live, she knew where she wanted to spend her final moments.

She finally took note of her surroundings.  Phasma and the troopers had left, only the praetorian guard remained.  They had placed a chair next to her and Hux indicated her to sit. She did.  It might not be very rebellious, but she was an old dying woman and her feet were killing her. 

“So, you actually called yourself “tyrant”? I guess at least your honest.”

He led out a bark of laughter.

“Come on general, I know you are more intelligent than that.” He challenged her.

She frowned, Ben was openly smiling now too. He had his hand on Hux’s shoulder.

“It takes away the taboo of the word.  When we denounce you as a dictator people turn to us and say “Yes, we know, that’s his title. So?”.  It’s just one more of your manipulations, just like those schools.

“Very good.”

“Don’t be patronizing. So, why am I not dead? Or are you saving the torture for latter? Don’t want to get blood on your nice carpet?”

Hux’s grin became much sharper.

“You have… privileges.”

“What are you…”

“I take it you don’t complain? This is what you wanted, is it not?  And I am a magnanimous ruler.  If I can pardon Leia Organa in her final days, if she comes here as my guest, walks my halls a free woman, certainly I can’t be as bad as all that?”

She glared at him. She had known this. She had come anyway.  After a life long of sacrifices she had decided to allow herself one selfish indulgence at the end of it.  She looked at Ben again. He smiled at her and she knew it had been worth it.

“Are we just going to sit here? Don’t you have some tyrannizing to do?”

“I’m an excellent multitasker.  I am oppressing the poor and crushing the bones of the just as we speak.”

“It won’t last, you know, monsters like you. Sooner or later people will rise up and they will tear you down.”

“We shall see, won’t we? Well, I shall.”

“People will fight you for their freedom!”

“Will they? In my experience people don’t want freedom, what they want is food on the table, a roof over their head and a decent expectation that their children won’t get raped and enslaved by pirates.” He was the one glaring at her now. “Of course, I could be mistaken, _princess_ ”

Ben made some shushing noises and ran his hand through Hux’s hair.

“Please don’t start with the politics, I will die of boredom.” He winked at her.

Leia stared at her son.

“That is an absolutely horrible thing to say.”

“Pragmatic more than horrible, I’d say…” Hux answered

“I wasn’t talking to you.”

Hux nodded and leaned back in his throne.

“You know he is here, don’t you? You can’t see him, you are not sensitive to the Force, I can tell.”

Hux’s face turned to stone.

“That is correct.”

“Why are you here Ben? How is it even possible?” Her son frowned at the use of his name but remained silent. She turned to Hux. “Didn’t you murder him?”

He looked at her intently.

“I did.”

She looked away shaking her head, this made no sense. She turned back when she heard him clear his throat.

“Do you know why Snoke kept him around? Why he was interested in Kylo?”

“It was Vader’s legacy, he wanted… an apprentice, a …”

“What he wanted was a body.”

The horror of that idea washed over her. How could it have been even worse than she had thought. She looked at Ben who smiled sadly at her.

“I think it didn’t happen immediately after he died, but eventually he had taken over.  When I warned the other knights they went out to investigate.  Eventually they discovered that there was an artefact on some Force forsaken planet.”  Hux had closed his eyes and was rubbing his forehead.

Leia listened horrified.  She didn’t want to hear it, she knew how it ended.  The evidence was standing right in front of her. She had made so many mistakes when Ben was young. She had thought the battle had been lost. But another had taken place, and she hadn’t even been part of it. She had already given up on him…

“They failed, half of them died.  Snoke realized what was going on. He… he was going to kill me. Kylo… slowed him down, just enough, for me to kill him.”

“Did it… was it quick?”

“No.”

She looked at him sharply.

“Eight minutes and 54 seconds. Poison.” She swallowed with difficulty. Was that how her son had found… redemption? He had sacrificed his life for someone he….

“You said _you_ warned the knights.”

“I eventually realized something was wrong.  He was different since that night.” Hux ran his hand over his neck. “At first I thought it was… He became more and more…. But then I realized he would never do that. It couldn’t be him. Never.”

“How did you…”

Hux grinned sourly. He removed his left glove.

“I told you general, you have privileges.” He showed her his hand.  There were two rings around his ring finger.  One of black metal and one white. “Being the only living family of the tyrant must be good for something.”

She didn’t know what to say. She looked at Ben, she saw him run his hand over Hux’s cheek. For a second she thought the man leaned into it, but it must have been her imagination.

“How long?”

“Seven minutes and 37 seconds.” He grinned at the look on her face. “We had a … complicated relationship.  After I stabbed him Snoke left. He asked, it was…” he sighed and smirked wryly.  “It was suitably dramatic, very in line with your family, so I am told. And with him.” He wiggled his fingers.  “I had these made later, I bloody well deserve it, putting up with all of that.”

They sat in silence, looking at each other.  Outside the room she thought she heard a patrol coming by, it might as well have been on another world.  Inside there was no sound.  She didn’t even hear the guard’s breath.  She wondered if they got special training for that, in that silly way the brain has of focusing on minutia when it didn’t want to think about something important. Finally, she breathed out.

“If you ever call me “mother” I will beat you to death with this chair.”

**Author's Note:**

> In case you'r curious, the rings are made out of an alloy of the metal from Kylo's sabre and his pulverised kyber crystal and the clear one with the metal from the dagger Hux used to kill someone for the first time. It had sentimental value.
> 
> A few days ago I received my print from Fancy Maul's fantastic "Emperor Hux" (the link is in the description, go see it if you haven't yet!) pic and it has been hanging proudly on my wall ever since. Then I got the idea of writing this and now I'm sad.
> 
> English is not my first language so please excuse any mistakes ( and feel free to point them out!) Comments are greatly appreciated.


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